Canandaigua transplant prepares for Irma in central Florida

While Florida braces for landfall, a former manager of Belhurst Castle is still in the Turks and Caicos Islands

By Mike Murphy mmurphy@messengerpostmedia.com

The sun shone bright and warm in central Florida on Friday.

Not a cloud in the sky, said Dave Monahan, a former longtime Canandaigua resident who now lives in the Sunshine State.

In other words, one of those days that folks who live up here through the winter months dream of — that is, at least they did until Hurricane Irma began to make its presence felt.

“They call it the calm before the storm,” said Monahan, who lives in The Villages retirement community, during a phone interview Friday morning. “Nervous? No. Concern is the better way to put it.”

Irma was expected to rip into the state over the weekend after wreaking destruction and havoc in the Caribbean, with the Miami metropolitan area looming in its crosshairs. The looming threat of the dangerous storm has triggered a massive evacuation.

Monahan, who is in close contact with several other Canandaigua area natives now living in the retirement community, shared stories of friends and neighbors who were told to pack away loose items in their yards, for fear they would become projectiles should Irma hit landfall as predicted.

Monahan said gas stations were so crowded that people were at the pumps directing traffic. People were loading up on gas to head out of the area to safer ground, but many found the roadways so crowded they turned around and went back home.

“It’s just a standstill,” Monahan said.

Stores such as Walmart looked as if they had held going-out-of-business sales, the shelves were so bare, he said. A local grocery had a water truck bringing in pallets filled with water bottles.

“One fella came out with a car full as if there will never be another drop,” Monahan said.

Here’s why they were concerned.

A Geneva couple who moved to the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean just a few months ago to run a resort were in the direct path of Hurricane Irma on Thursday.

Kevin and Ellen Reeder managed the Belhurst Castle in Geneva for years. Rrecently, they decided to take on a new adventure but they never expected the adventure would get this wild so soon.

The Reeders moved in June to run the Somerset Resort. “It's paradise, it's the most beautiful place in the world,” Ellen Reeder told Daily Messenger news partner News 10NBC, but Mother Nature had different ideas.

The Reeders had spent the week trying to get most of their guests home. They’ve also been making sure their staff is as protected as possible. Once everything was prepared, they decided, as parents to six adult children, that one of them should leave the islands too.

Ellen was hoping to get home by the weekend but she’s most concerned about her husband.

"Last I spoke with him, the country heads had decided that everyone should get to where they have to be, close the door and stay there now, no one is to be outside,” she said.

WiFi and phone lines were down; text messages were going through sporadically.

“My stomach is upside down just thinking about the worry. The hard part is the waiting to find out and waiting for the storm, for Kevin, knowing that he's closed inside and just hoping that everything is going to be alright,” she said.

But at least where Monahan is, many people were out walking their dogs as normal Friday, prepared to accept what Irma brings, when, or if, it happens. sometime over the weekend.

“There’s not a lot we can do but ride it out,” Monahan said.

Includes reporting from Daily Messenger news partner, News 10NBC

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